Here's what I do when people don't follow the directions: send a reply saying "please resubmit your requested manuscript and this time follow the directions."

I don't do the cutting and pasting for them.
I don't explain the directions in different words.
I also don't discard the query.

One mulligan per query...but that's only for partials and fulls.

If you don't follow the directions at the initial query stage (send your query as an attachment; don't tell me what the book is about; cc or bcc every agent in NYC) I don't worry about it. I just say no.

The horrifying fact that 25% of the pool either missed seeing or just didn't follow the directions doesn't surprise me in the slightest. Somebody has to be below average! I just hope it's not you.

I'm like you. Making them follow the rules may teach them to PAY ATTENTION next time, which will help you and all the other agents out there. I work in tech support. We have a main help desk for computer problems that they all are required to call. But, as in the case of Mr. Bransford, about 1 in 4 refuse to do that and call me directly every time. It's the SAME 1 in 4, of course. So, every time, I say, "You need to hang up and call" and give them the number. They do but the next time they call me again. My co-workers think I'm crazy to do that...they just go ahead and enter the ticket for the person themselves and go do it. Not me. Teach a man to call the help desk and (eventually) he calls the help desk for a lifetime. Do it for him and he never learns.

Ha! I almost posted on Nathan's blog for him to channel his "inner Janet Reid" - kind of a WWJD - What Would Janet Do? but I didn't want to hurt your feelings. I should have known you could take it and gone with my instincts!!!

Janet, something IS confusing here. I've never been asked to paste the query into the ms. I always include it in the email itself and attach the ms as is. Recently I was asked to include the query (I always do), but it didn't say where to include it. I hope I haven't missed something, as I always follow directions.

It is a bit confusing. Nathan asks that "your email" be included on the first page- he means your query, but on first reading I thought he meant email address.

Also, since partials are sent as attachments, I wonder if people did resend their query, but in the email that the pages were attached to. As commenters there have said, "Make the first page of your attached partial the query" is simplest.

The people who really want to be published, who are serious about it, will learn.

There are instructions for everything, and the instructions -- in many cases -- are simply there to help get stuff done as quickly and efficiently as possible. I used to work in a government department handling requests. I handled about 150 (sometimes more) requests per day. The 75% of folks who followed the rules got their requests handled that morning. The rest had to wait, sometimes up to 2 weeks, before I could figure out what they were looking for. And, more often than not, I had to send their request back asking for that information.

Imagine having a recipe (which is a list of instructions) for a cake, and deciding that some of the instructions don't pertain to you. You don't like chocolate, so you leave that out. It's hot out - let's not turn the oven up as high as it says. And who really needs flour? Just use oatmeal instead. Funny, but I don't think you'll really want to be eating that cake...

Following instructions make things happen faster and better. But, of course, I'm preaching to the converted (and a long sermon it turned out to be...) :)

I had a similar experience with wedding emails. We sent out a save-the-date with a link to a web form to input mailing addresses for the invitation. Most people got it, but there were a few that just replied with the address anyways. I ended up replying and asking them to input it into the link. Probably took as much time to explain to them as to input the address myself, but it's the principle of the matter...

Bwah!!! You're hilarious. Well, he said he can't afford to let a potentially good manuscript get away, so maybe he's just relatively new to the scene. You've got cash lined up or something? You can afford to pass some by. Or maybe it just helps your mojo, getting rid of the renobs. Either way, I find you fantastically funny.

It's actually half the people on the planet are below 'median' intelligence, not 'average', but I'm just being a pedantic snot to point that out. I'm in Muncie, Indiana waiting for my pizza to arrive and the hotel has a fast internet connection. So, I'm blog surfing . . .

I am unleashing my bright shiny new query fresh from the query squirrels in my crit group on one of your agency-mates in a pitch session this weekend at the Midwest Writers Workshop at Ball State University. Are there any particular office-wide-bribes that might work better than others?

Well, you know, there are different types of intelligence. There is also a cultural assessement of intelligence. For example, Western Culture tends to value speed of thought. Whereas some Easter cultures value deeper thinking over time. So, evaluating intelligence is a tricky thing.

I know that there are some things I can comphrehend almost before I'm taught them. I just gulp them down. On the other hand, no matter how many times someone explains how the Stock market works to me, it's like they are talking gobbly-gook. For some reason, my mind just doesn't work that way.

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I'm a literary agent in NYC. I specialize in crime fiction and narrative non-fiction (history and biography.) I'll be glad to receive a query letter from you; guidelines to help you decide if I'm looking for what you write are below.
There are several posts labelled "query pitfalls" and "annoy me" that may help you avoid some common mistakes when querying.